on the road

In Evansville, IN for a technology thingummy.

Spent an hour chatting with the lady at the front desk at the hotel: a self-confessed computer illiterate, she lusts after a new laptop and mentioned complaints she'd received about the complimentary wireless here.

For a cool little laptop, I directed her to the Dell Inspiron Mini 9; then I dug my Toshiba out of my satchel and, right there at the desk, ran a quick snoop of wireless using NetStumbler: seems they only offer 802.11g and the complaints came from owners of old laptops that probably only support 802.11b. I explained how, with most cheap WAPs, 802.11b clients drag down 802.11g clients anyway, so it helps users of the new WiFi spec to quit supporting the old.

This is what those of us in I.T. should be: enablers of technology for users who don't know better. Robert Pirsig wrote in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about the "death force" of modern technology, how it dehumanizes without even meaning to. We all should counteract that.